Systems and methods for maintaining equipment in an industrial automation environment

ABSTRACT

A method for generating a report regarding prioritizations of industrial automation devices in an industrial system may include determining a first score for each of the industrial automation devices. The first score represents a relative importance of each of the industrial automation devices. The method may also include determining a second score for each of one or more parts of each of the industrial automation devices. The second score represents a relative importance of each of the parts with respect to each other. The method may also include generating the report comprising the parts, the industrial automation devices, the first score for each of the industrial automation devices, the second score for each of the parts, or any combination thereof, wherein the report is organized according to the first score, the second score, or based on a combination of the first score and the second score.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation application of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 15/043,936, entitled “Systems And Methods For MaintainingEquipment In An Industrial Automation Environment,” filed Feb. 15, 2016,which claims priority from and the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 62/139,182, entitled “Systems and Methods forExchanging Information Between Devices in an Industrial AutomationEnvironment,” filed Mar. 27, 2015, each of which is hereby incorporatedby reference in their entirety for all purposes.

This application also claims priority from and the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/256,490, entitled “Systems andMethods for Maintaining Equipment in an Industrial AutomationEnvironment,” filed Nov. 17, 2015, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to maintaining industrialautomation equipment in an industrial automation system using acommunication architecture that enables the equipment to shareinformation with each other, certain computing devices, and acloud-based computing system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Generally, the present disclosure discusses numerous concepts regardinghow devices in an industrial automation environment may exchangeinformation with each other and use this shared information to assistusers in the industrial automation environment to manage the operationsand maintenance of the devices. In one embodiment, the devices in theindustrial automation system may include a communication architecturethat is structured according to a tri-partite paradigm that facilitatescommunications between a device, a computing device, and a cloud-basedcomputing system. The information shared within this tri-partitestructure may enable machines to operate more efficiently, users toperform their tasks more efficiently, and generally provide for improvedoperations of an industrial automation system.

In one embodiment, the computing device may receive equipmentinformation regarding an industrial automation system, such as anindustrial plant. The equipment information may include a list of eachtype of industrial automation device that may be present in the system,catalog or serial numbers associated with each industrial automationdevice, and other types of identifying information related to eachindustrial automation device. In addition to receiving this equipmentinformation, the computing device may receive various other types ofinformation regarding each industrial automation device. For instance,the computing device may receive reliability information, priorityinformation, life expectancy information, location information,inventory information, or process line information regarding eachindustrial device. In addition to the information mentioned above, thecomputing device may receive additional information related to theindustrial automation devices or parts of the industrial automationdevices via a control system or device that may be part of theindustrial automation device, the cloud-based computing system, or both.

Using this collection of information, the computing device may generateone or more reports that characterizes each industrial automation devicewith respect to a selectable attribute such as reliability, priority,life expectancy, location, process line location, or the like. Thecomputing device may also generate service recommendations to ensurethat the industrial automation devices operates efficiently whilemaximizing their respective life expectancies based on the collectedinformation. In one embodiment, the computing device may generatenotifications or software update requests based on the collectedinformation. Additional details regarding the computing device and theoperations that the computing device may perform will be discussed withreference to FIGS. 1-9 below.

DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood when the following detaileddescription is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in whichlike characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatical representation of an exemplary control andmonitoring system, in accordance with embodiments presented herein;

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a communication network thatenables devices to communicate with each other within an industrialapplication, in accordance with embodiments presented herein;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of example components within a computingdevice that is part of the communication network of FIG. 2, inaccordance with embodiments presented herein;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of example components within a cloud-basedcomputing system of the communication network of FIG. 2, in accordancewith embodiments presented herein;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of example inputs provided to the computingdevice of FIG. 3 for providing certain outputs to assist in maintainingindustrial automation equipment, in accordance with embodimentspresented herein;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method for determining a prioritizationscore for various pieces of the industrial automation equipment, inaccordance with embodiments presented herein;

FIG. 7 illustrates a data flow diagram for determining an equipmentprioritization score based on information received via the computingdevice of FIG. 3, in accordance with embodiments presented herein;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a method for performing certain actions basedon the equipment prioritization score determined according to the flowchart of FIG. 6, in accordance with embodiments presented herein; and

FIG. 9 illustrates an example report generated based on the equipmentprioritization score, in accordance with embodiments presented herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effortto provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all featuresof an actual implementation are described in the specification. Itshould be appreciated that in the development of any such actualimplementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerousimplementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve thedevelopers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related andbusiness-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation toanother. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a developmenteffort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be aroutine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those ofordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are generally directed towards atri-partite paradigm or communication network between at least threedevices that enables information regarding an industrial automationsystem to be exchanged between one or more devices of the system moreefficiently. The devices of the communication network may include, inone example, a computing device, automation equipment or machineryoperating in an industrial automation system, and a cloud-basedcomputing system communicatively coupled to the computing device and theequipment in the industrial automation system. In one embodiment, thistri-partite paradigm may involve a software application operating on acomputing device, such that the software application may be used tomonitor, control, access, or view automation equipment in an industrialautomation system. In any case, the information collected by thecomputing device and the automation equipment in the industrialautomation system may be transmitted to the cloud-based computingsystem, such that the cloud-based computing system may analyze theinformation or alert other devices in the industrial automation systemof relevant information. As such, the cloud-based computing system maycoordinate the exchange of information between various devicesassociated with the industrial automation system, such that varioustasks and operations of the industrial automation system may beperformed more efficiently.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatical representation of an exemplary control andmonitoring system 10, in accordance with embodiments presented herein.In FIG. 1, the control and monitoring system 10 is illustrated asincluding a human machine interface (HMI) 12 and a control/monitoringdevice 14 or automation controller adapted to interface with devicesthat may monitor and control various types of industrial automationequipment 16. It should be noted that such an interface in accordancewith embodiments of the present techniques may be facilitated by the useof certain network strategies. Indeed, an industry standard network maybe employed, such as DeviceNet, to enable data transfer. Such networkspermit the exchange of data in accordance with a predefined protocol,and may provide power for operation of networked elements.

The industrial automation equipment 16 may take many forms and includedevices for accomplishing many different and varied purposes. Forexample, the industrial automation equipment 16 may include machineryused to perform various operations in a compressor station, an oilrefinery, a batch operation for making food items, a mechanized assemblyline, and so forth. Accordingly, the industrial automation equipment 16may comprise a variety of operational components, such as electricmotors, valves, actuators, temperature elements, pressure sensors, or amyriad of machinery or devices used for manufacturing, processing,material handling, and other applications.

Additionally, the industrial automation equipment 16 may include varioustypes of equipment that may be used to perform the various operationsthat may be part of an industrial application. For instance, theindustrial automation equipment 16 may include electrical equipment,hydraulic equipment, compressed air equipment, steam equipment,mechanical tools, protective equipment, refrigeration equipment, powerlines, hydraulic lines, steam lines, and the like. Some example types ofequipment may include mixers, machine conveyors, tanks, skids,specialized original equipment manufacturer machines, and the like. Inaddition to the equipment described above, the industrial automationequipment 16 may also include controllers, input/output (I/O) modules,motor control centers, motors, human machine interfaces (HMIs), operatorinterfaces, contactors, starters, sensors 18, actuators 20, drives,relays, protection devices, switchgear, compressors, sensor, actuator,firewall, network switches (e.g., Ethernet switches, modular-managed,fixed-managed, service-router, industrial, unmanaged, etc.) and thelike.

In certain embodiments, one or more properties of the industrialautomation equipment 16 may be monitored and controlled by certainequipment for regulating control variables used to operate theindustrial automation equipment 16. For example, sensors 18 andactuators 20 may monitor various properties of the industrial automationequipment 16 and may adjust operations of the industrial automationequipment 16, respectively.

In some cases, the industrial automation equipment 16 may be associatedwith devices used by other equipment. For instance, scanners, gauges,valves, flow meters, and the like may be disposed on industrialautomation equipment 16. Here, the industrial automation equipment 16may receive data from the associated devices and use the data to performtheir respective operations more efficiently. For example, a controller(e.g., control/monitoring device 14) of a motor drive may receive dataregarding a temperature of a connected motor and may adjust operationsof the motor drive based on the data.

In certain embodiments, the industrial automation equipment 16 mayinclude a computing device and/or a communication component that enablesthe industrial equipment 16 to communicate data between each other andother devices. The communication component may include a networkinterface that may enable the industrial automation equipment 16 tocommunicate via various protocols such as EtherNet/IP, ControlNet,DeviceNet, or any other industrial communication network protocol.Alternatively, the communication component may enable the industrialautomation equipment 16 to communicate via various wired or wirelesscommunication protocols, such as Wi-Fi, mobile telecommunicationstechnology (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE), Bluetooth®, near-fieldcommunications technology, and the like.

The sensors 18 may be any number of devices adapted to provideinformation regarding process conditions. The actuators 20 may includeany number of devices adapted to perform a mechanical action in responseto a signal from a controller (e.g., the automation controller). Thesensors 18 and actuators 20 may be utilized to operate the industrialautomation equipment 16. Indeed, they may be utilized within processloops that are monitored and controlled by the control/monitoring device14 and/or the HMI 12. Such a process loop may be activated based onprocess inputs (e.g., input from a sensor 18) or direct operator inputreceived through the HMI 12. As illustrated, the sensors 18 andactuators 20 are in communication with the control/monitoring device 14.Further, the sensors 18 and actuators 20 may be assigned a particularaddress in the control/monitoring device 14 and receive power from thecontrol/monitoring device 14 or attached modules.

Input/output (I/O) modules 22 may be added or removed from the controland monitoring system 10 via expansion slots, bays or other suitablemechanisms. In certain embodiments, the I/O modules 22 may be includedto add functionality to the control/monitoring device 14, or toaccommodate additional process features. For instance, the I/O modules22 may communicate with new sensors 18 or actuators 20 added to monitorand control the industrial automation equipment 16. It should be notedthat the I/O modules 22 may communicate directly to sensors 18 oractuators 20 through hardwired connections or may communicate throughwired or wireless sensor networks, such as Hart or IOLink.

Generally, the I/O modules 22 serve as an electrical interface to thecontrol/monitoring device 14 and may be located proximate or remote fromthe control/monitoring device 14, including remote network interfaces toassociated systems. In such embodiments, data may be communicated withremote modules over a common communication link, or network, whereinmodules on the network communicate via a standard communicationsprotocol. Many industrial controllers can communicate via networktechnologies such as Ethernet (e.g., IEEE802.3, TCP/IP, UDP,EtherNet/IP, and so forth), ControlNet, DeviceNet or other networkprotocols (Foundation Fieldbus (H1 and Fast Ethernet) Modbus TCP,Profibus) and also communicate to higher level computing systems.

In the illustrated embodiment, several of the I/O modules 22 areconfigured to transfer input and output signals between thecontrol/monitoring device 14 and the industrial automation equipment 16.As illustrated, the sensors 18 and actuators 20 may communicate with thecontrol/monitoring device 14 via one or more of the I/O modules 22coupled to the control/monitoring device 14.

In certain embodiments, the control/monitoring system 10 (e.g., the HMI12, the control/monitoring device 14, the sensors 18, the actuators 20,the I/O modules 22) and the industrial automation equipment 16 may makeup an industrial application 24. The industrial application 24 mayinvolve any type of industrial process or system used to manufacture,produce, process, or package various types of items. For example, theindustrial applications 24 may include industries such as materialhandling, packaging industries, manufacturing, processing, batchprocessing, and the like.

In certain embodiments, the control/monitoring device 14 may becommunicatively coupled to a computing device 26 and a cloud-basedcomputing system 28. In this network, input and output signals generatedfrom the control/monitoring device 14 may be communicated between thecomputing device 26 and the cloud-based computing system 28.

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a communication network 30 thatenables devices to communicate with each other within an industrialapplication, in accordance with embodiments presented herein. As such,the communication network 30 enables devices that are part of theindustrial application 24 to communicate with each other and with otherdevices that are not part of the industrial application 24. As mentionedabove, the industrial application 24 may be in the material handling,packaging industries, manufacturing, processing, batch processing, orany technical field that employs the use of the industrial automationequipment 16.

With the foregoing in mind, in one embodiment, data acquired by theindustrial automation equipment 16 may be transmitted to a computingdevice 26. The computing device 26 may be a computing device that mayinclude communication abilities, processing abilities, and the like. Forexample, the computing device 26 may be any general computing devicethat may monitor, control, and/or operate one or more of the industrialautomation equipment 16. As such, the computing device 26 may be alaptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone device computingdevice, a general personal computer, a wearable computing device, or thelike. Additional details regarding the computing device 26 will bediscussed below with reference to FIG. 3.

In addition to communicating with the industrial automation equipment16, the computing device 26 may also communicate with the cloud-basedcomputing system 28. The cloud-based computing system 28 may be acloud-accessible platform that may include one or more servers, one ormore computing devices (e.g., general purpose computers), and the like.In any case, the cloud-based computing system 28 may include a number ofcomputers that may be connected through a real-time communicationnetwork, such as the Internet, Ethernet, EtherNet/IP, ControlNet, or thelike, such that the multiple computers may operate together as a singleentity. The real-time communication network may include any network thatenables various devices to communicate with each other at near real-timeor such that data is communicated with each other at near instantaneousspeeds. In one embodiment, the cloud-based computing system 28 may becapable of communicating with the industrial automation equipment 16 andthe computing device 26. As such, the cloud-based computing system 28may be capable of wired or wireless communication between the industrialautomation equipment 16 and the computing device 26. In one embodiment,the cloud-based computing system 28 may be accessible via the Internetor some other network.

After establishing a communication connection between the computingdevice 26 and the industrial automation equipment 16 (e.g., via anassociated control/monitoring device 14 or computing device of theindustrial automation equipment 16), the cloud-based computing system 28may receive data acquired by the computing device 26 and the industrialautomation equipment 16. After receiving this data, in one embodiment,the cloud-based computing system 28 may perform large-scale dataanalysis operations on the data, such that the operations may bedistributed over the computers that make up the cloud-based computingsystem 28.

In another embodiment, the cloud-based computing system 28 may forwardacquired data or analyzed data to different computing devices, variousindustrial automation equipment, or the like. As such, the cloud-basedcomputing system 28 may maintain a communication connection with variousindustrial automation equipment 16, computing devices 26, and the like.Additional details regarding the cloud-based computing system 28 will bediscussed below with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of example components within the computingdevice 26 that is part of the communication network 30, in accordancewith embodiments presented herein. For example, the computing device 26may include a communication component 35, a processor 36, a memory 37, astorage 38, input/output (I/O) ports 39, an image sensor 40 (e.g., acamera), a location sensor 41, a input/display 42, additional sensors(e.g., vibration sensors, temperature sensors) and the like. Thecommunication component 35 may be a wireless or wired communicationcomponent that may facilitate communication between the industrialautomation equipment 16, the cloud-based computing system 28, and othercommunication capable devices (e.g., apparatuses described below).

The processor 36 may be any type of computer processor or microprocessorcapable of executing computer-executable code. The processor 36 may alsoinclude multiple processors that may perform the operations describedbelow. The memory 37 and the storage 38 may be any suitable articles ofmanufacture that can serve as media to store processor-executable code,data, or the like. These articles of manufacture may representcomputer-readable media (e.g., any suitable form of memory or storage)that may store the processor-executable code used by the processor 36 toperform the presently disclosed techniques. Generally, the processor 36may execute software applications that include programs that enable auser to track and/or monitor operations of the industrial automationequipment 16 via a local or remote communication link. That is, thesoftware applications may communicate with the control/monitoring device14 and gather information associated with the industrial automationequipment 16 as determined by the control/monitoring device 14, viasensors disposed on the industrial automation equipment 16, and thelike.

The memory 37 and the storage 38 may also be used to store the data,analysis of the data, the software applications, and the like. Thememory 37 and the storage 38 may represent non-transitorycomputer-readable media (e.g., any suitable form of memory or storage)that may store the processor-executable code used by the processor 36 toperform various techniques described herein. It should be noted thatnon-transitory merely indicates that the media is tangible and not asignal.

In one embodiment, the memory 37 and/or storage 38 may include asoftware application that may be executed by the processor 36 and may beused to monitor, control, access, or view one of the industrialautomation equipment 16. As such, the computing device 26 maycommunicatively couple to industrial automation equipment 16 or to arespective computing device of the industrial automation equipment 16via a direct connection between the devices or via the cloud-basedcomputing system 28.

The I/O ports 39 may be interfaces that may couple to other peripheralcomponents such as input devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse), sensors,input/output (I/O) modules, and the like. I/O modules may enable thecomputing device 26 to communicate with the industrial automationequipment 16 or other devices in the industrial automation system viathe I/O modules.

The image sensor 40 may include any image acquisition circuitry such asa digital camera capable of acquiring digital images, digital videos, orthe like. The location sensor 41 may include circuitry designed todetermine a physical location of the computing device 26. In oneembodiment, the location sensor 41 may include a global positioningsystem (GPS) sensor that acquires GPS coordinates for the computingdevice 26. In another embodiment, the location sensor 41 may includeother circuitry such as a radio wave transmitter, an infrared sensor,and the like that may acquire data that may be used to determine alocation of the computing device 26 with respect to other industrialautomation equipment 16 or other fixtures in the industrial automationsystem. In certain embodiments, the computing device 26 may also includevarious other sensors that may provide additional data related to anenvironment in which the computing device 26 exists. For instance, theother sensors may include an accelerometer, a gas (e.g., smoke, carbonmonoxide) sensor, or the like.

The display 42 may depict visualizations associated with software orexecutable code being processed by the processor 36. In one embodiment,the display 42 may be a touch display capable of receiving inputs (e.g.,parameter data for operating the industrial automation equipment 16)from a user of the computing device 26. As such, the display 42 mayserve as a user interface to communicate with the industrial automationequipment 16. The display 42 may be used to display a graphical userinterface (GUI) for operating the industrial automation equipment 16,for tracking the maintenance of the industrial automation equipment 16,performing various procedures (e.g., lockout tagout, placing deviceoffline, replacing component, servicing device) for the industrialautomation equipment 16, and the like. The display 42 may be anysuitable type of display, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), plasmadisplay, or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, for example.Additionally, in one embodiment, the display 42 may be provided inconjunction with a touch-sensitive mechanism (e.g., a touch screen) thatmay function as part of a control interface for the industrialautomation equipment 16 or for a number of pieces of industrialautomation equipment in the industrial application 24, to control thegeneral operations of the industrial application 24. In someembodiments, the operator interface may be characterized as the HMI 12,a human-interface machine, or the like.

Although the components described above have been discussed with regardto the computing device 26, it should be noted that similar componentsmay make up the control/monitoring device 14. Moreover, the computingdevice 26 may also be part of the industrial automation equipment 16,and thus may monitor and control certain operations of the industrialautomation equipment 16. Further, it should be noted that the listedcomponents are provided as example components and the embodimentsdescribed herein are not to be limited to the components described withreference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of example components within the cloud-basedcomputing system 28 of the communication network 30 of FIG. 2, inaccordance with embodiments presented herein. As mentioned above, thecloud-based computing system 28 may include a number of computingdevices, such as servers 43 that may be communicatively coupled to eachother and may distribute various tasks between each other to perform thetasks more efficiently. In certain embodiments, each server 43 mayinclude the example components described above as part of the computingdevice 26 in FIG. 3.

The cloud-based computing system 28 may also have access to a number ofdatabases 44. The databases 44 may be related to various aspects of theindustrial automation system, the industrial automation equipment 16,the computing device 26, operators of the computing device 26 or theindustrial automation equipment 16, or the like. For example, thedatabases 44 may include information regarding procedures for operatingand/or maintaining the industrial automation equipment 16. Theprocedures, as such, may include steps to perform, tools to use,personal protective equipment to wear, and the like with regard to theoperations being performed.

The databases 44 may also include information regarding variousregulations related to how the industrial automation equipment 16 shouldbe maintained or operated. Additionally, the regulations may be relatedto how maintenance operations should be documented by the user of thecomputing device 26. The databases 44 may also include data related towarranty information for the industrial automation equipment 16, servicecontact information related to the industrial automation equipment 16,manuals for operating the industrial automation equipment 16, and otherinformation that may be useful to an operator of the industrialautomation equipment 16. The databases 44 may also include relevantinformation regarding parts used in the industrial automation equipment16. The relevant information may include whether the parts are stillavailable, part of an inventory associated with the user or owner of theindustrial automation equipment 16 or the like.

In certain embodiments, the cloud-based computing system 28 may alsoinclude access to various resources 46. The resources 46 may be adatabase or collection of published documents or webpages that may berelated to the industrial automation equipment 16. As such, theresources 46 may be accessed by the cloud-based computing system 28available via the Internet or other communication networks. Thecloud-based computing system 28 may search or consult the resources 46to acquire data related to the industrial automation equipment 16. Forinstance, the resources 46 may provide information regarding productrecalls or safety concerns related to the industrial automationequipment 16, weather advisory notices for the industrial automationsystem, and the like. Additionally, the resources 46 may includehardware, software or firmware updates, software patches, vulnerabilitypatches, certificates, and the like.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram 50 of example inputs provided to the computingdevice of FIG. 3 for providing certain outputs to assist in maintainingindustrial automation equipment, in accordance with embodimentspresented herein. Although the block diagram 50 indicates that thecomputing device 26 is receiving the inputs and determining the outputs,it should be noted that, in certain embodiments, the control/monitoringdevice 14 or the cloud-based computing system 28 may receive thedescribed inputs, perform certain operations or analysis, and generatethe outputs described below. Also, in some embodiments, different tasksdescribed below may be performed by different components, such as thecomputing device 26, the control/monitoring device 14, or thecloud-based computing system 28.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the block diagram 50 illustrates an example ofinputs that may be received by the computing device 26, such that theinputs may be analyzed to enable a user of the industrial automationequipment 16 to more efficiently manage the maintenance of theindustrial automation equipment 16. With this in mind, the computingdevice 26 may receive inputs such as equipment information 52,reliability information 54, priority information, 56, life expectancy58, location information 60, inventory information 62, process lineinformation 64, and the like.

In certain embodiments, the information described below may be manuallyinput into the computing device 26 by a user visiting a facility orplant in which the industrial application 24 takes place. However, itshould be noted, that in other embodiments, a computing system, such asthe control/monitoring device 14, or a computing system disposed withinthe industrial automation equipment 16 may provide the informationdescribed below to the computing system 26. That is, the computingsystem may communicate with components disposed on the industrialautomation equipment 16 to retrieve the information described below. Assuch, the information described below may be stored within othercomputing systems, controllers, electronic tags (e.g., radio frequencyidentification tags, near-field communication tags), and the like. Forexample, when a particular industrial automation equipment 16 is placedon online or provided access to a communication network, a computingsystem associated with the particular industrial automation equipment 16may broadcast information regarding the particular industrial automationequipment 16. The broadcasted information may then be received by, forinstance, the computing device 26 to perform various techniquesdescribed herein.

The equipment information 52 may include information regarding eachpiece of the industrial automation equipment 16 that may be part of theindustrial application 24. As such, the equipment information 52 mayinclude information regarding the types of industrial automationequipment 16 present at a facility, a part number for each type ofindustrial automation equipment 16, a parts list for various parts thatmake up each type of industrial automation equipment 16, a part numberfor each item in the part list, a description of each type of industrialautomation equipment 16, a description of each item in the part list, areplacement part number for each type of industrial automation equipment16, a replacement part number for each item in the part list, and thelike. The equipment information 52 may also include a cost or priceassociated with each type of industrial automation equipment 16, eachpart in the parts list, and each replacement part for teach part in theparts list.

In one embodiment, the equipment information 52 may also includeinformation regarding parts, replacement parts, or additional pieces ofthe industrial automation equipment 16 that may be present at thefacility having the industrial automation equipment 16 as part of thefacility's inventory. The information regarding the items included inthe facility's inventory may be useful in determining whether properamounts of spare parts, replacement parts, and pieces of industrialautomation equipment 16 are present at the facility to ensure that theindustrial application 24 operations efficiently.

The equipment information 52 may also include information regarding thereparability of various pieces of the industrial automation equipment16. Generally, the reparability may be characterized as repair,exchange, or consume. The repair categorization may indicate that thepiece of equipment 16 may be reparable, the exchange categorization mayindicate that the piece of equipment is not reparable and should bereplaced with another unit, and the consume categorization may indicatethat the piece of equipment is not reparable and does not have asuitable replacement unit available. With these categorizations in mind,in certain embodiments, a user may assign different weights or valuesfor each categorization.

For example, the repair categorization may be assigned a value of 0.9,the exchange categorization may be assigned a value of 0.95, and theconsume categorization may be assigned a value of 1. As such, as thepiece of equipment 16 becomes less reparable, the relative importance ofthe equipment increases. That is, since a piece of equipment that is notreparable and does not have a suitable replacement may be burdensome tothe industrial automation application 24 if the piece of equipment fallsinto disrepair, it becomes more important to the user of the industrialautomation application 24 to plan for the replacement or contingencyplan for maintaining the operations of the industrial automationapplication 24 in the event that the piece of industrial automationequipment 16 fails. As will be described in greater detail below, thecomputing device 26 may use the weighting factors to prioritize variouspieces of industrial automation equipment 16 for planning a lifecycle ofthe industrial automation application 24, a migration plan for theindustrial automation application 24, a replacement schedule for variouspieces of equipment 16 in the industrial automation application 24, andthe like.

In addition to the reparability of a piece of industrial equipment 16,the equipment information 52 may also provide information regarding amean time to repair (MTTR) for the pieces of industrial equipment 16.The MTTR categorizations may include, for example, less than 30 minutes,30 minutes to 2 hours, 2 to 8 hours, and more than 8 hours. In oneexample, the less than 30 minutes categorization may be valued at 1, the30 minutes to 2 hours categorization may be valued at 1.05, the 2 to 8hours categorization may be valued at 1.2, and the more than 8 hourscategorization may be valued at 1.4. As such, as the MTTR increase, therelative importance of the piece of equipment 16 increases.

In certain embodiments, the equipment information 52 may also includeinformation related to a downtime cost for the pieces of industrialautomation equipment 16 and a corresponding rating or weight for thecost. For instance, the downtime cost may be categorized as less than$1,000, which may be weighted as 1.0, between $1,000 and $5,000, whichmay be weighted at 1.05, between $5,000 and $10,000, which may beweighted at 1.2, and greater than $10,000, which may be weighted as 1.4.

The equipment information 52 may also include information regarding howpieces of the equipment 16 may be supported. The support typeinformation may include categorizations such as in a house to indicatethat personnel associated with the industrial automation system usingthe piece of equipment is capable of supporting (e.g., repairing,troubleshooting) the piece of equipment 16. Another support typecategorization may include a local service provider, which may indicatethat another organization not associated with the industrial automationsystem, but local (e.g., within 50 miles) to the facility of theindustrial automation system is capable of supporting the piece ofequipment 16. The support type categorizations may also include anoriginal equipment manufacturer (OEM) categorization that indicates thatthe manufacturer of the piece of equipment 16 will be capable ofsupporting the equipment 16. Another support type categorization mayinclude a not guaranteed category, which may indicate that support mayor may not be available for the piece of equipment 16. The in-housecategorization may, in one example, be valued at 1, the local supportcategory may be valued at 1.05, the OEM categorization may be valued at1.2, and the not guaranteed categorization may be valued at 1.4. Assuch, as uncertainty regarding the availability of support for a pieceof industrial automation equipment 16 increases, the relative importancefor the piece of equipment 16 also increases.

In addition to the support type information, the equipment information52 may also include information related to a technical segmentassociated with the piece of industrial equipment. The technical segmentmay be a general categorization regarding the piece of equipment 16indicating whether the piece of equipment 16 is generally easy toacquire (e.g., low), carried at a local distributor (e.g., normal), notnormally carried by a distributor and may involve downtime (e.g.,medium), and not stocked or difficult to attain (e.g., high). Thetechnical segments may be related to the type of piece of equipment 16.For example, generally programmable logic controllers (PLCs) may bewidely available at various local distributors due to its frequency ofuse. As such, the PLC-type equipment may be categorized as a lowtechnical segment. On the other hand, a drive that operates using aparticular input voltage and provides a particular output voltage may becategorized as a high technical segment that is not stocked and isdifficult to attain within a certain period of time (e.g., 1 week).

Like the categorizations described above, the technical segmentcategorizations may also be weighted according to a particular values.For example, the low technical segment category may be assessed a 1value, a normal technical segment category may be assessed a 1.05 value,a medium technical segment category may be assessed a value of 1.2, anda high technical segment category may be assessed a value of 1.4. Assuch, as the technical segment indicates that the piece of equipment 16is increasingly difficult to acquire, the relative importance of thepiece of equipment 16 increases.

The equipment information 52 may also include information regarding alifecycle categorization for each piece of industrial automationequipment 16. The lifecycle categorization may indicate the level ofsupport or product availability for the piece of equipment 16 that isbeing offered by the manufacturer of the piece of equipment 16. Forinstance, the lifecycle categorizations may include an active categorythat indicates that the piece of industrial automation equipment 16 isthe most current product offering by the manufacturer, and thus is fullysupported. Another category may include an active-mature category thatindicates that the piece of equipment 16 is fully supported by themanufacturer but newer versions or products exist. An end-of-lifecategory may indicate that the manufacturer has announced a discontinueddate in which the manufacturer may not produce any more of therespective piece of equipment 16. A not-available category may indicatethat information regarding the lifecycle stage of the piece of equipment16 is not available or is unknown. In one example, the active categorymay be characterized as having a 1 weight or rating, the active maturecategory may have a 1.05 rating, the end-of-life category may have a 1.2rating, a discontinued category may have a 1.4 rating, and anot-available category may have a value of 1. As such, as themanufacturer provides less support for the piece of equipment 16, therelative importance of the piece of equipment 16 may increase.

In certain embodiments, identifying information for the equipmentinformation 52 may be received by the computing system 26 by way of aone-line diagram or a schematic indicating how power may flow through afacility or within the industrial application 24. As such, the computingsystem 26 may analyze the one-line diagram or the schematic to determinethe types of industrial automation equipment 16 are present at thefacility. It should be noted that the computing system 26 may alsodetermine the types of industrial automation equipment 16 present at thefacility based on other types of diagrams as well, such as a networkingdiagram, a piping and instrument diagram, and the like.

In another embodiment, the computing device 26 may receive the equipmentinformation 52 by scanning a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tagfor each type of industrial automation equipment 16 present at thefacility, pinging controllers or other devices that are part of theindustrial automation equipment 16 via a network, and the like. Afterthe industrial automation equipment 16 is identified, the computingsystem 26 may query a database that may include a list of parts and partnumbers associated with each respective piece of identified industrialautomation equipment 16.

In some cases, as additional pieces of the industrial automationequipment 16 are added to a facility, the control/monitoring device 14may communicate the addition of the respective piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16 to the computing device 26 or the cloud-basedcomputing system 28. As such, the computing device 26 or the cloud-basedcomputing system 28 may have an updated list of the industrialautomation equipment 16 present at the facility.

The rating or weight information described above may, in someembodiments, be received from the user via the computing device 26. Insome embodiments, the control/monitoring device 14 or the cloud-basedcomputing system 28 may receive user inputs regarding these values. Insome cases, the computing device 26, the control/monitoring device 14,or the cloud-based computing system 28 may generate the ratings orweight values for the factors discussed above based on an age of thepiece of equipment 16, information available via the servers 43, thedatabases 44, the resources 46, and other information sources availableto the cloud-based computing system 28.

In addition to the equipment information 52, the computing device 26 mayreceive reliability information 54 regarding the industrial automationequipment 16. The reliability information 54 may characterize thereliability of each piece of industrial automation equipment 16 as ascore or some value. The reliability information 54 may be determinedbased on maintenance records for the respective piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16, the downtime of the respective piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16 over a certain period of time,reviews provided by other owners of the respective piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16 available via the cloud-basedcomputing system 28, empirical data regarding the respective piece ofthe industrial automation equipment 16, empirical data regarding asimilar piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 located atanother facility stored in a database accessible via the cloud-basedcomputing system 28, and the like.

In certain embodiments, the reliability information 54 may becharacterized from a scale of 1 to 1.4, where 1 indicates that therespective piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 is generallyconsidered to be very reliable. The reliability information 54 may bedesignated by a user or operator of the piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16. As such, the computing device 26 may presentthe user with certain categories to characterize the piece of industrialautomation equipment 16 such as excellent reliability, good reliability,somewhat reliable, and poor reliability.

Each characterization may be associated with a different rating orvalue. For instance, excellent reliability may be assigned a value of 1,good reliability may be assigned a value of 1.05, somewhat reliable maybe assigned a value of 1.2, and unreliable may be provided a value of1.4. The example values listed above illustrate that as a piece ofindustrial automation equipment 16 is less reliable, the weight of thereliability rating increases, thus representing a greater importance tothe user. Although the characterizations described above are assignedparticular values mentioned above, it should be noted that eachcharacterization may be assigned a different value based on a user'spreferences. Moreover, it should be noted that the user is not limitedto providing values via characterization values. Instead, the user or acomputing system may assign a reliability rating using any suitablevalue that may best represent the reliability of the respective piece ofthe industrial automation equipment 16.

The computing device 26 may also receive priority information 56regarding the industrial automation equipment 16. The priorityinformation 56 may characterize or quantify the types of equipment withrespect to an importance rating to a respective user. As such, thepriority information 56 may provide an assessment of a risk or impact ofthe respective piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 withrespect to the industrial application 24. The priority information 56may be characterized, for example, as critical, high, medium, or low.Each characterization may be associated with a weighted value (e.g.,1-1.4), such that each piece of the industrial automation equipment 16may be associated with some quantified value. For example, the priorityinformation 56 may be valued as 1.0 for low priority, 1.05 for mediumpriority, 1.2 for high priority, and 1.4 for critical priority. Like thereliability ratings, the priority ratings also increase as the prioritylevel increases to represent increased importance to the user.

The priority information 56 may be received from the user since the usermay understand the value of each piece of the industrial automationequipment with regard to the industrial application 24. For example, ifa drive device becomes inoperable, the user may understand that anentire line of processing may also become inoperable and may cause adelay of a certain number of weeks due to a delay in receiving areplacement piece of equipment. As such, the user may identify theparticular drive as a critical piece of equipment and the computingdevice 26 may associate a relatively high weighted value to this driveas compared to other pieces of the industrial automation equipment 16present at the respective facility. In the same manner, the user mayidentify certain programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that are presentat the facility as having a low priority because replacement PLCs may bereadily available in the user's inventory or at a local distributor thatregularly stocks these PLCs.

The priority information 56 may also be associated with a part of aprocess line or position within a workflow of the industrial application24. That is, if a respective piece of industrial automation equipment 16is located within a process line or part of a workflow that directlyimpacts certain key performance indicators (KPIs) of the industrialapplication 24, the priority information 56 for the respective piece ofthe industrial automation equipment 16 may indicate a relatively higherpriority as compared to other pieces of the industrial automationequipment 16.

The priority information 56 may also be determined based on an estimatedcost to replace the respective piece of the industrial automationequipment 16. Additionally, the priority information 56 may be based onan expected loss of operating hours, expected downtime in production,loss in production, and the like associated with the loss of therespective piece of the industrial automation equipment 16. Forinstance, the priority information 56 may be associated with a totalmonetary value of throughput of a particular work process of thefacility for the respective piece of industrial automation equipment 16.

The computing device 26 may also receive life expectancy information 58regarding each respective piece of the industrial automation equipment16. The life expectancy information 58 may indicate an amount of time inwhich a respective piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 maycontinue to exist or operation within the facility. The life expectancyinformation 58 may be related to a total number of hours that therespective piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 has been inservice and an expected amount of service time before maintenance value.Generally, the life expectancy information 58 may be characterized asless than five years, five to ten years, and more than ten years. Usingthese characterizations, less than five years may be valued at 1.3, fiveto ten years may be valued at 1.15, and more than ten years may bevalued at 1. As such, as the expected life increases, the rating for theexpected life categorizations may decrease. In certain embodiments, thelife expectancy information 56 may be received via databases accessibleby the cloud-based computing system 28 or the like. Moreover, it shouldbe noted that, in certain embodiments, the ratings for the differentlife expectancy categorizations may be valued differently as per auser's preferences.

In some instances, the user of the facility may decide to migrate out ofa particular type of technology within some time frame. As such, if therespective piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 is part ofthe migration plan, the life expectancy information 58 may be updated tocorrespond to a plan for when the respective piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16 may be migrated from the facility. In certainembodiments, the life expectancy information 58 may be characterizedaccording to time, such as under five years, five to ten years, morethan ten years, and the like.

The computing device 26 may also receive location information 60regarding each respective piece of the industrial automation equipment16 within the facility. The location information 60 may specify an areaor portion within the industrial application 24 that corresponds to afunction within the industrial application 24. For instance, theindustrial application 24 may correspond to a product manufacturingfacility that fills cans with a product and packages cans for shipment.As such, the facility may be logically divided into a manufacturingportion and a packaging portion. The location information 60 in thisexample may indicate whether each piece of the equipment 16 is withinthe manufacturing area or the packaging area. In some embodiments, acontrol device or computing system associated with each piece ofequipment 16 may be aware of its location within the industrialapplication 24 and may send the location information 60 to the computingdevice 26 or the like.

The location information 60 may also indicate a physical location ofeach respective piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 withinthe facility. As such, the location information 60 may provide spacinginformation between each respective piece of the industrial automationequipment 16, a layout of how each respective piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16 is positioned within the facility, and the like.By knowing the types of the industrial automation equipment 16 thatsurround each respective piece of the industrial automation equipment16, the computing device 26 may be able to analyze or ascertain variousrisks to certain pieces of the industrial automation equipment 16 due totheir respective proximities to other pieces of the industrialautomation equipment 16. For example, if a drive device is located neara cooking unit, the computing device 26 may determine that the averageambient temperature that for the environment in which the drive deviceis operating may be higher as compared to other drive devices within thefacility. This increased temperature may cause additional wear or otherconditions for the particular drive device that may not be relevant forother drive devices. Since the location information 60 provides therelative location of each respective piece of the industrial automationequipment 16, the computing device 26 may thus account for additionalfactors when evaluating how a certain device may be maintained overtime.

As mentioned above, the equipment information 52 may include informationregarding the inventory present at a facility or at a location that maybe useful for the user. This inventory information 62 may also beprovided to the computing device 26 as an independent input. Theinventory information 62 may also include information regarding whetherthe equipment or part listed in the inventory is still supported by amanufacturer, still being produced by a manufacturer, has been replacedwith an updated version (e.g., software or hardware version), and thelike. Each item in the inventory information 62 may be weighted or ratedby the user according to the categorizations described above. In oneexample, the inventory rating for each piece of equipment 16 in theinventory list may depend on whether a spare part is present in theinventory or not. For example, if a spare is available, the inventoryrating may be 0.85, whereas if the spare is not available, the inventoryrating may be 1. As such, a higher relative importance may be assignedto the piece of equipment 16 that has a spare available in theinventory, as compared to the piece of equipment 16 that does not have aspare available.

The computing device 26 may also receive process line information 64regarding each respective piece of the industrial automation equipment16. The process line information 64 may indicate a part of a workflow ofthe industrial application 24. That is, a facility may include a numberof work areas or work lines that may perform different functions. Theprocess line information 64 may indicate a relative part of an overallworkflow process in which each respective piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16 may be located. As such, the computing device 26may consider the location of each respective piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16 within the overall workflow of the facility whendetermining how to maintain various pieces of the industrial automationequipment 16. For instance, a drive device may be part of a packagingprocess line for a facility that manufacturers and produces differenttypes of cookies. In this example, if each process line associated withproducing each type of cookie feeds into one process line for packaging,the computing device 26 may assess a value for the drive device that ispart of the packaging process line as being higher than other drivedevices that do not support the packaging process line because all ofthe other producing lines feed into the packaging line. In someembodiments, a user may specify to the computing device 26 or the like avalue or weight for each process line indicating a respective value orimportance of each process line with respect to the industrialapplication 24.

After receiving one or more of the information types discussed above,the computing device 26 may analyze the information and provide a set ofoutputs that may assist a user in managing the operations andmaintenance of the industrial automation equipment 16. For instance, thecomputing device 26 may generate reports 66, service recommendations 68,notifications 70, and software/firmware updates request 72 regarding theindustrial automation equipment 16.

The reports 66 may include a collection of the information acquired bythe computing device 26. The reports 66 may include an inventoryanalysis report indicates the number of and types of industrialautomation equipment 16 present at the facility. In one embodiment, upongenerating the inventory analysis report, the computing device 26 maygenerate recommendations regarding a number of spare parts that shouldbe maintained for each piece of the industrial automation equipment 16.As such, the computing device 26 may analyze the inventory information62 to determine whether the inventory levels for each piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16 is available.

The report 66 may also include a lifecycle-based report that may displayrisk areas within the facility that have older pieces of the industrialautomation equipment 16. The risk areas may be organized according to ahierarchy of the facility. In one embodiment, the computing device 26may identify areas within the facility that may benefit from a migrationof equipment or service of equipment.

The reports 66 may also include a detailed production location report,which may detail locations in the facility that certain parts arelocated. In one embodiment, the user may define the terminology employedby the detailed production report, such that the user may interpret thedata in a format that may be easily evaluated. By way of example, thedetailed production report may be organized according to a hierarchy ofthe facility. For instance, the hierarchy may be displayed as thefollowing: Facility

-   -   Area (Large sections of the facility)—Ex. Processing, Packaging,        Shipping etc.        -   Location (Work processes in the plant)—Ex. Line 1, Line 2            etc.            -   Machine (the machines that make up a work process)                -   Panel (the panels that make up a machine)                -    Part (the parts that make up a panel)

The reports 66 may also include environment reports that indicate anenvironment (e.g., temperature, humidity) that surround the industrialautomation equipment 16.

It should be noted that with the overwhelming amount of data availablevia the computing device 26, the reports 66 may assist a user inorganizing the copious amount of data that arise with respect to systemsrooted in computer-technology. That is, as data has become moreavailable via network and Internet communications, the ability for auser to process the large amounts of data in a digestible format, suchas that provided by the report 66, may provide an efficient solution tomaintaining the equipment 16 in view of the large amounts of data.

In addition to the reports 66, the computing device 26 may provideservice recommendations 68 regarding the industrial automation equipment16. In certain embodiments, the service recommendations 68 may bedetermined based on the inputs received by the computing device 26mentioned above. For example, the computing device 26 may receive theequipment information 52, the reliability information 54, and thepriority information 56 and determine a risk score or value for eachpiece of the industrial automation equipment 16. The risk score may bedetermined based on a relative importance of each piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16 with respect to the part of theworkflow that each piece of the industrial automation equipment 16participates in, the reliability of each piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16, and the priority designated to each piece ofthe industrial automation equipment 16. Using the risk score, thecomputing device 26 may generate recommendations for servicing orreplacing various pieces of the industrial automation equipment 16 inaccordance to the calculated risk or priority level.

Service recommendations 68 may also include recommendations to movepositions or locations of various pieces of the industrial automationequipment 16 in view of the location information 60 and efficiencyconcerns determined by the computing device 26.

In one embodiment, the service recommendations 68 may also include analternative plan or approach to perform a service on pieces of theindustrial automation equipment 16. For instance, if the computingdevice 26 receives a plan or request to place a piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16 offline to perform a maintenance operation, thecomputing device 26 may determine whether the plan may be performed atan alternate time or in an alternate manner based on the process lineinformation 64, the inventory information 62, or the like. That is, ifthe computing device 26 determines that a replacement item exists in theinventory and that the piece of the industrial automation equipment 16to be serviced is part of a high priority process line according to theprocess line information 64, the computing device 26 may recommendswitching the piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 beingserviced with a replacement item and then servicing the piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16. As such, the computing device 26 mayassist in minimizing an amount of time that the respective process linemay be offline, thereby increasing the efficiency in production at thefacility.

The service recommendations 68 may assist a user in identifying whichpieces of the industrial automation equipment 16 to maintain or replacein accordance with a priority of the facility. That is, the servicerecommendations 68 may assist a user in determining which pieces of theindustrial automation equipment 16 should be addressed first andthereafter.

The computing device 26 may also generate notifications 70 based on thereceived inputs. In one embodiment, after receiving the inputs describedabove, the computing device 26 may access the cloud-based computingsystem 28 to perform some analysis regarding the industrial automationequipment 16 in view of information available via the database 44, theresources 46, or the like. For instance, upon receiving the inventoryinformation 60, the computing device 26 may determine whether the userhas a sufficient number of spare parts for various pieces of theindustrial automation equipment 16. The sufficient number of spare partsmay be determined based on information available via the cloud-basedcomputing system for other similar pieces of the industrial automationequipment 16 and an expected usage of the spare parts.

The notifications 70 may also include details regarding whether parts orpieces of the industrial automation equipment 16 are being discontinued,have been replaced with newer versions, or the like. As such, thecomputing device 26 may receive updated information regarding the statusof each part of the inventory or each piece of the industrial automationequipment 16 via the cloud-based computing system 28, which may receivedata concerning these matters from a manufacturer, distributor, or thelike.

In the same manner, the computing device 26 may generate software orfirmware update requests 72 based on the received inputs and theinformation available via the cloud-based computing system 28. In oneembodiment, upon determining that a software or firmware update isavailable for a piece of the industrial automation equipment 16 presentin the facility, the computing device 26 may push the software updatefrom the cloud-based computing system 28 to the control/monitoringdevice 14 or another piece of circuitry.

With the foregoing in mind, FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method80 for determining a prioritization score for various pieces of theindustrial automation equipment 16, in accordance with embodimentspresented herein. Although the following description of the method 80 isdescribed as being performed by the computing device 26, it should benoted that the method 80 may be performed using any suitableprocessor-based system. Moreover, although the following description ofthe method 80 is described as being performed in a particular order, itshould be noted that the method 80 may be performed in any suitableorder. Generally, the information received by the computing device 26mentioned below is described in greater detail above with respect to thediscussion regarding FIG. 5.

Referring now to FIG. 6, at block 82, the computing device 26 mayreceive location information 60 regarding each piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16 in the industrial application 24. As such, thecomputing device 26 may receive an area designation within theindustrial application 24, the process line information 64, and otherinformation described above regarding the location of each piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16. In one embodiment, the informationreceived at block 82 may indicate a rating or value associated with thedetails of area or process line that corresponds to each piece ofequipment 16. Generally, a user may specify the weight or rating, whichcorresponds to a relative importance of the specified location withrespect to other locations within the industrial application 24. In somecases, the computing device 26 may determine a weight for eachdesignated location based on a value of the equipment within the area,the proportion of industrial processing time (e.g., manufacturing ofproducts, preparation of products, packaging of products) is associatedwith the respective area, and the like.

At block 84, the computing device 26 may receive the equipmentinformation 52 regarding each piece of the industrial automationequipment 16 within the industrial application 24. As such, thecomputing device 26 may receive an identification (e.g., product name,number) of a machine that corresponds to the industrial automationequipment 16, as well as an identification (e.g., part name, number) ofeach asset within the respective machine. In some cases, theidentification of the machine or the asset may be a general industrystandard characterization (e.g., dry-mix packaging, case erector, remotepanel, human machine interface, etc.). As such, the computing device 26may also receive information regarding a manufacturer, a part number, adescription, and the like regarding each piece of the industrialautomation equipment 16.

As part of the equipment information 52, the computing device 26 mayreceive information regarding the reparability, the technical segment,and lifecycle for each piece of the industrial automation equipment 16.Generally, the reparability, the technical segment, and lifecycleinformation may be related to assets or parts that make up a largermachine, such as a drive, a conveyor belt, a motor, or the like. Theassets may correspond to various parts that may be used to enable themachine to operate such as a human-machine interface, a PLC, and thelike.

Also part of the equipment information 52, the computing device 26 mayreceive expected mean time to repair information, expected lifeinformation, support information, and expected machine downtimeinformation regarding each piece of the industrial automation equipment16. Generally, the expected mean time to repair information, expectedlife information, support information, and expected machine downtimeinformation may be associated with machines that are used to performvarious tasks within the industrial application 24.

In addition to the equipment information 52, the computing device 26, atblock 86, may receive the inventory information 62 regarding theequipment 16. As such, the computing device 26 may receive dataregarding whether spare parts are available on site or in an inventoryfor each piece of the industrial automation equipment 16. As mentionedabove, the inventory information 62 may indicate a weight or ratingbased on whether a spare piece of equipment 16 is available or not.

At block 88, the computing device 26 may receive priority information 54regarding each piece of the industrial automation equipment 16. Asdiscussed in detail above with regard to FIG. 5, the priorityinformation 54 may indicate a relative importance for each piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16 with respect to other pieces of theindustrial automation equipment 16. In the same manner, at block 90, thecomputing device 26 may receive the reliability information 54 discussedabove. As such, the computing device 26 may receive weights or ratingsfor each piece of the industrial automation equipment 16.

After receiving the information regarding the equipment 16 discussedabove, at block 92, the computing device 26 may determine aprioritization score for each piece of the equipment 16 based on thereceived data. In one embodiment, the prioritization score for the pieceof industrial equipment 16 may be determined based on an analysis of apart or asset score and a machine score. As discussed above, a machinemay represent any suitable type of industrial automation equipment 16that is composed or made up of a number of parts or assets. Using theinventory information 62, the reparability information, the technicalsegment information, and the lifecycle information discussed above, thecomputing device 26 may determine a part score for each part or assetitem of the industrial automation equipment 16. In the same manner,using the expected life information, the expected mean time to repairinformation, the reliability information, the priority information, thesupport information, and the expected machine down time informationregarding machine items of the industrial automation equipment 16, thecomputing device 26 may determine a machine score. The computing device26 may then combine the machine score for a particular machine and thepart scores for the parts that make up the machine to determine acombined score that corresponds to the prioritization score for themachine. Keeping the foregoing in mind, additional details regarding howthe part score, the machine score, and the combined score are determinedare discussed below.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data flow diagram 100 for determining an equipmentprioritization score based on information received via the computingdevice 26, in accordance with embodiments presented herein. The dataflow diagram 100 may represent how certain inputs are received by asoftware application operating in the computing device 26 to determinethe equipment prioritization score according to the method 80 of FIG. 6.Although the data flow diagram 100 is described as being implemented bythe computing device 26, it should be noted that any suitable computingsystem may implement the data flow diagram 100.

Generally, as discussed above, the equipment prioritization score may bedetermined by analyzing various types of information regarding parts orassets that make up a machine within the industrial application 24 andvarious types of information regarding the machine, itself. For example,the machine may refer to an industrial automation drive that converts analternating current (AC) voltage into a direct current (DC) voltage andconverts the DC voltage into a controllable AC voltage. The parts orassets of the industrial automation drive may include the HMI used tocontrol the drive, as well as various sensors used to detect variousoperating conditions (e.g., voltage, current, temperature) of the drive.

Referring to FIG. 7, information, such as spare information 102,reparability information 104, technical segment information 106, andlifecycle information 108, regarding each part or asset within aparticular machine may be analyzed by a part analysis component 110being executed by the computing device 26. Using the providedinformation, the part analysis component 110 may generate a part score112 for the part or asset being analyzed. The part analysis component110 may then determine the part score 112 for each part in theparticular machine being analyzed. Using the part scores 112 of theparts disposed in the particular machine, the computing device 26 maydetermine the prioritization score, which will be described in greaterdetail below.

Referring back to the inputs provided to the part analysis component110, the spare information 102 may include data (e.g., weight or rating)described as being part of the inventory information 62 discussed above.That is, the spare information 102 may specify whether a spare part forthe respective part is available on hand or at the facility in which theparticular machine is operating.

The reparability information 104 may correspond to the reparabilitycategories discussed above with regard to the equipment information 52.As such, the reparability information 104 may include data related tothe reparability category that corresponds to the respective part andthe corresponding weight for the respective part with respect to itsreparability category.

The technical segment information 106 may correspond to the technicalsegment categories discussed above with regard to the equipmentinformation 52. As such, the technical segment information 106 mayindicate whether the respective part is available to be acquired via alocal distributor or the like. Moreover, the technical segment categoryassociated with the respective part may also be associated with aparticular weight or rating that is provided to the part analysiscomponent 110 along with the technical segment information 106.

The lifecycle information 108 may include data related to where the partstands with regard to the product lifecycle categorizations mentionedabove with regard to the equipment information 52. As such, thelifecycle information 108 may indicate a level of support that isavailable for the respective part from the part's manufacturer.Depending on the lifecycle categorization of the respective part, thelifecycle information 108 may include a weight or rating for therespective part to quantify the risk associated with the correspondinglifecycle categorization of the part.

Upon receiving the spare information 102, the reparability information104, the technical segment information 106, and the lifecycleinformation 108, the part analysis component 110 may use the weightsprovided by the information to determine a part score 112. Generally,each respective weight corresponds to a value that may quantify arelative importance of the respective part with respect to other partsin the machine and with respect to an overall effect of the respectivepart as it is installed within the industrial automation equipment 16.In one embodiment, the part analysis component 110 may normalize thecombined weights regarding the respective part based on the quantity ofparts present in the respective machine. As such, the parts analysiscomponent 110 may determine a product of the received weights and aquantity of the respective part present within the respective machine.The parts analysis component 110 may then divide the result of thatproduct by the quantity to determine a normalized parts score. Equation1 below provides an expression that indicates how the part score 112 maybe determined.Product Score=(Reparability Weight*Technical Segment Weight*LifecycleWeight*Quantity)/Quantity   (1)

In addition to analyzing data regarding the parts that are part of amachine, the computing device 26 may also analyze data regarding theparticular machine to determine a machine score. For instance, thecomputing device 26 may receive expected life information 114,reliability information 116, machine priority information 118, supportinformation 120, expected machine downtime information 122, and expectedmean time to repair (MTTR) information 124 via a machine analysiscomponent 126 to determine a machine score 130.

Generally, the expected life information 114, the reliabilityinformation 116, and the machine priority information 118 may correspondto the life expectancy information 58, the reliability information 54,and the priority information 56, discussed above, respectively. As such,the expected life information 114, the reliability information 116, andthe machine priority information 118 may include respective weights orratings that quantify a relative importance of the respective machinewith respect to each factor and a user's preferences.

The support information 120 may indicate the support type categorizationassociated with the respective machine as described above with respectto the equipment information 52. As such, the support information 120may also include data related to the support type weight associated withthe respective machine.

In the same manner, the expected machine downtime information 122 andthe expected MTTR information 124 may indicate the expected downtimecategorization and the expected MTTR categorization associated with therespective machine as described above with respect to the equipmentinformation 52. As such, the expected machine downtime information 122and the expected MTTR information 124 may also include data related tothe weights associated with the respective machine in view of thecorresponding expected downtime categorization and the expected MTTRcategorization associated with the respective machine.

After receiving the expected life information 114, the reliabilityinformation 116, the machine priority information 118, the supportinformation 120, the expected machine downtime information 122, and theexpected mean time to repair (MTTR) information 124, the machineanalysis component 126 may determine the machine score 130 according toEquation 2 provided below.Machine Score=(Expected Life Weight*Reliability Weight*PriorityWeight*Support Weight*Machine Downtime Weight*Expected MTTR Weight)  (2)

It should be noted that in Equations 1 and 2, weight information thatmay be missing or may not be available for any of the input values usedto determine the part score 112 or the machine score 130 may be assigneda 1 or unity value. As such, the missing information should have noeffect on the resulting score.

After determining the machine score 130 and the part score 112 for eachpart in the respective machine in which information is available, thecomputing device 26 may use a machine and parts analysis component 132to determine an equipment prioritization score 134. The combination ofthe machine score 130 and the part score 112 for each part in therespective machine may create a correlated relationship between theparts by themselves and with the ones installed across the machine, aswell as a total score for the machine. In one embodiment, the equipmentprioritization score 134 may be determined based on a average part scorefor each part of a respective machine and the machine score as indicatedbelow in Equation 3.Equipment Prioritization Score=(Average Parts Score+Machine Score)   (3)

In some embodiments, the equipment prioritization score 134 may bedetermined based on the machine score 130 alone. In the same manner, theequipment prioritization score 134 for a part or asset within a machinemay be determined based on the part score 112 along.

By determining the equipment prioritization score 134 for each machineor part within the machine that is part of the industrial automationequipment 16 in the industrial application 24, each piece of equipment16 may be ranked with regard to each other based on a user's custominputs with respect to the spare information 102, the reparabilityinformation 104, the technical segment information 106, the lifecycleinformation 108, the expected life information 114, the reliabilityinformation 116, the machine priority information 118, the supportinformation 120, the expected machine downtime information 122, and theexpected mean time to repair (MTTR) information 124 discussed above.Moreover, the equipment prioritization score 134 may accurately reflecta relative importance of each piece of the industrial automationequipment 16 with respect to the user. As such, the user may quicklyidentify pieces of equipment 16 that may use service, replacement, ormodifications to ensure that the industrial application 24 operatesefficiently.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a method 140 for performing certain actionsbased on the equipment lifecycle prioritization score 134. Like themethod 80 of FIG. 6 described above, the method 140 is described asbeing performed by the computing device 26, but it should be noted thatany suitable computing system may perform the method 140 describedherein. Also, although the method 140 is described in a particularorder, it should be understood that the method 140 may be performed inany suitable order.

Referring now to FIG. 8, at block 142, the computing device 26 mayreceive the equipment prioritization score 134 associated with one ormore pieces of the industrial automation equipment 16. At block 144, thecomputing device 26 may generate a report based on the equipmentprioritization score 134 associated with one or more pieces of theindustrial automation equipment 16. As such, the computing device 26, inone embodiment, may generate a spreadsheet that lists each piece of theindustrial automation equipment 16 organized according to its respectiveequipment prioritization score 134.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example report generated based on the equipmentprioritization score 134. As illustrated in FIG. 9, the part score 112and the machine score 130 may be listed for each piece of equipment 16along with the corresponding equipment prioritization score 134. Assuch, the user may view the generated report to identify pieces ofequipment 16 that may use service, can be replaced, and the like.

Referring back to FIG. 8, at block 146, the computing device 26 mayautomatically send a request to a technician or a service provider toreplace or service a piece of the industrial automation equipment 16based on the respective equipment prioritization score 134. In oneembodiment, if the respective equipment prioritization score 134 isgreater than a threshold, the computing device 26 may adjust a scheduleof a technician to indicate that the respective piece of equipment 16 isto be replaced, send a request to the cloud-based computing system 28 toreceive virtual assistance to formulate a plan to minimize risk of therespective piece of equipment 16 from decreasing efficiency of theindustrial application 24, and the like.

At block 148, the computing device 26 may create and send a purchaseorder to purchase additional spare pieces of equipment 16 or to restockinventory levels at the respective facility. In embodiment, thecomputing device 26 may send the purchase order when the respectiveequipment prioritization score 134 is above a threshold.

At block 150, the computing device 26 may send one or more commands tothe industrial automation equipment 16 to adjust the operations ofcertain pieces of equipment 16 based on the respective equipmentprioritization scores 134. For instance, the computing device 26 maysend the commands to adjust the operations when the equipmentprioritization scores are above a threshold. In one embodiment, thecommands may cause the pieces of equipment 16 to reduce its speed orthroughput to minimize wear on the respective piece of equipment 16 andto prolong the expected life of the respective piece of equipment 16.

Technical effects of the embodiments described herein includeefficiently managing the maintenance of industrial automation equipmentwithin a facility. By efficiently sharing data between a computingdevice, an automation controller, and a cloud-based computing system,maintenance of the equipment within the industrial application 24 may beperformed more efficiently. Moreover, by providing various mechanismsand reports to organize large amounts of data acquired via variousnetwork connects, the technical effects of the embodiments describedherein provide users with the ability to interpret information regardingthe equipment being managed based on the acquired data.

In the preceding specification, various embodiments have been describedwith reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto, andadditional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from thebroader scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow.The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in anillustrative rather than restrictive sense.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for controlling one or more operations of a plurality of industrial automation devices in an industrial system, comprising: receiving, via a processor, a first set of identification information regarding the plurality of industrial automation devices from a computing device; receiving, from one or more databases via the processor, a first set of information associated with the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the first set of identification information, wherein the first set of information comprises: reliability information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices, wherein the reliability information comprises historical maintenance data associated with a respective industrial automation device; life expectancy information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices, wherein the life expectancy information comprises an estimated remaining service life of the respective industrial automation device; and a second set of identification information regarding each part of a set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices; receiving, from the one or more databases via the processor, a second set of information associated with each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the second set of identification information, wherein the second set of information comprises: inventory information regarding each part of the set of parts, wherein the inventory information comprises an availability of a replacement part for the part in an inventory associated with the industrial system; and lifecycle information regarding each part of the set of parts, wherein the lifecycle information corresponds to a degree of manufacturer support available for a respective part; determining, via the processor, a maintenance order of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the reliability information, the life expectancy information, the inventory information, and the lifecycle information, wherein the maintenance order comprises a listing of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices according to a maintenance priority of each part of the set of parts; and transmitting, to the computing device, an indication of one or more service recommendations based on the maintenance order.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of information comprises: priority information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; support information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; expected down time information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; expected mean time to repair information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; process line information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; or a combination thereof.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of information comprises reparability information regarding each part of the set of parts, technical segment information regarding each part of the set of parts, or both.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reliability information regarding each industrial automation device comprises a degree of reliability for the industrial automation device based on empirical data regarding a similar industrial automation device in a different industrial system and a maintenance record associated with the industrial automation device, downtime of the industrial automation device over a period of time; a review of the industrial automation device, or empirical data regarding the industrial automation device, or a combination thereof.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated remaining service life of the industrial automation device comprises a total amount of service time associated with the industrial automation device, an expected amount of service time before maintenance is performed on the industrial automation device, or both.
 6. The method of claim 1, comprising: sending, via the processor, a command to one or more industrial automation devices of the plurality of industrial automation devices to adjust a speed or a throughput of the one or more operations to minimize wear on the one or more industrial automation devices based on the maintenance order of each part of the set of parts.
 7. The method of claim 1, comprising: generating, via the processor, a report including a listing of each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the maintenance priority of each part of the set of parts, and the listing of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices in accordance with the maintenance priority of each part of the set of parts; and transmitting, via the processor, the report to the computing device for display.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the maintenance order of each part of the set of parts comprises determining a relative maintenance importance of each part of the set of parts with respect to each other part of the set of parts based on respective weights attributed to the reliability information, the life expectancy information, the inventory information, and the lifecycle information.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more service recommendations comprise a first recommendation to service one or more parts of the set of parts at a particular time and a second recommendation to service the one or more parts of the set of parts at one or more alternative times.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more service recommendations comprises a first recommendation to maintain a number of replacement parts for a first part of the set of parts in an inventory associated with the industrial system, a second recommendation to relocate a second part of the set of parts to another location associated with the industrial system, or both.
 11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for controlling one or more operations of one or more industrial automation devices in an industrial system, wherein the computer-executable instructions are configured to cause a processor to: receive a first set of identification information regarding a plurality of industrial automation devices from a computing device; receive, from one or more databases, a first set of information associated with the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the first set of identification information, wherein the first set of information comprises: reliability information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices, wherein the reliability information comprises historical maintenance data associated with a respective industrial automation device; life expectancy information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices, wherein the life expectancy information comprises an estimated remaining service life of the industrial automation device; and a second set of identification information regarding each part of a set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices; receive, from the one or more databases, a second set of information associated with each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the second set of identification information, wherein the second set of information comprises: inventory information regarding each part of the set of parts, wherein the inventory information comprises an availability of a replacement part for the part in an inventory associated with the industrial system; and lifecycle information regarding each part of the set of parts, wherein the lifecycle information comprises a degree of manufacturer support available for a respective part; determine a maintenance order of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the reliability information, the life expectancy information, the inventory information, and the lifecycle information, wherein the maintenance order comprises a listing of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices according to a maintenance priority of each part of the set of parts; and generate and transmit a report to the computing device for display, wherein the report comprises a listing of each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the maintenance priority of each part of the set of parts, and the listing of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices in accordance with the maintenance priority of each part of the set of parts.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first set of information comprises: priority information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; support information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; expected down time information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; expected mean time to repair information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; process line information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; or a combination thereof.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the second set of information comprises reparability information regarding each part of the set of parts, technical segment information regarding each part of the set of parts, or both.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the reliability information regarding each industrial automation device comprises a degree of reliability for the industrial automation device based on a maintenance record associated with the industrial automation device, downtime of the industrial automation device over a period of time; a review of the industrial automation device, empirical data regarding the industrial automation device, or empirical data regarding a similar industrial automation device in a different industrial system, or a combination thereof.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the estimated remaining service life of the industrial automation device comprises a total amount of service time associated with the industrial automation device, an expected amount of service time before maintenance is performed on the industrial automation device, or both.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions are configured to cause a processor to: receive a user input from the computing device to adjust a speed or throughput of one or more operations to minimize wear on one or more industrial automation devices of the plurality of industrial automation devices; and send a command to the one or more industrial automation devices to adjust the speed or the throughput of the one or more operations in response to receiving the user input.
 17. A system, comprising: a plurality of industrial automation devices; and a computing device configured to: receive one or more user inputs indicative of a first set of identification information regarding the plurality of industrial automation devices from a user device; receive, from one or more databases, a first set of information associated with the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the first set of identification information, wherein the first set of information comprises: reliability information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices, wherein the reliability information comprises historical maintenance data associated with a respective industrial automation device; life expectancy information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices, wherein the life expectancy information comprises an estimated remaining service life of the respective industrial automation device; and a second set of identification information regarding each part of a set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices; receive, from the one or more databases, a second set of information associated with each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the second set of identification information, wherein the second set of information comprises: inventory information regarding each part of the set of parts; and lifecycle information regarding each part of the set of parts, wherein the inventory information comprises an availability of a replacement part for the part in an inventory associated with an industrial system; and lifecycle information regarding each part of the set of parts, wherein the lifecycle information corresponds to a degree of manufacturer support available for a respective part; determine a maintenance order of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices based on the reliability information, the life expectancy information, the inventory information, and the lifecycle information, wherein the maintenance order comprises a listing of each part of the set of parts of the plurality of industrial automation devices according to a maintenance priority of each part of the set of parts; and transmit, to the user device, an indication of one or more service recommendations based on the maintenance order.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first set of information comprises: priority information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; support information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; expected down time information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; expected mean time to repair information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; process line information regarding each industrial automation device of the plurality of industrial automation devices; or a combination thereof.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the second set of information comprises reparability information regarding each part of the set of parts, technical segment information regarding each part of the set of parts, or both.
 20. The system of claim 17, wherein the computing device is configured to send a command to one or more industrial automation devices of the plurality of industrial automation devices to adjust a speed or a throughput of one or more operations to minimize wear on one or more industrial automation devices based on the maintenance order of each part of the set of parts. 